Do you need to show your employees a little love and appreciation? You don’t have to wait for the holidays – a gift can celebrate a big sale, a completed project, a new baby or a team member retirement. We’ve curated a list of unique gift ideas to let employees know that you care about the hard work they do for your business.
Looking for some uncommon goods that will wow your employees? Consider a “subscription box”, a recurring delivery of niche products. Hopefully, you have a good grasp of your employee’s passions and hobbies and can tailor a box perfect for each. Here are just a few creative examples.
My Coffee and Book Club
If you have a reader and coffee fanatic on your staff, they’ll love getting a monthly box from My Coffee and Book Club. Each box has a 12 ounce bag of whole bean or ground coffee from micro-roaster 1910 Roasting Co., two new hardcover books in a genre of choice, an e-Book for reading and more.
Urban Organic Gardner’s (UOG) Monthly Seed Club
UOG is a gardening subscription box for every type of gardener. It contains a curated collection of heirloom seeds and garden supplies along with seed starter soil sods, plant markers/labels, Epsom salt soil fertilizer pack, and more. Read about their options here.
BBQ Box
A monthly box of BBQ accessories is perfect for the meat-loving cooks on your staff. Each box includes one sauce or marinade, one rub or spice, one edible (think beef jerky) and one sample pack of wood chips. All of the items in each box work great together. Learn more here.
For an in-depth look at subscription boxes tested by the CBS MoneyWatch team, review this article: 13 Top Subscription Boxes for Gift Giving
Stay on top of the trends and get your staff tech gadgets they’ll love. You can go expensive but there are plenty of affordable and creative gifts out there.
Roku Media Player
Do you have an employee passionate about the latest in entertainment? They’ll love a Roku player where you can pick and choose what you want to watch delivered right to your TV via an internet router. Roku has access to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime—all the best video apps.
Here’s a typical review on Amazon: “2 weeks in without cable, and this was one of the best purchase choices we have made.”
Amazon Echo or Echo Dot
This device is capable of voice interaction, playing music, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks along with providing weather, traffic and other real-time information. It can also control several smart devices acting as a home automation hub. Learn about the Echo options and purchase directly from Amazon here.
Headphones
Music buffs on your staff will appreciate a quality pair of headphones. Check out this list of top quality headphones from Lifewire: The 11 Best Headphones for Music Lovers in 2018. Priced from $300 to $34, you’re sure to find the perfect fit for your music loving employee.
Do you have employees who primarily work at a desk? Help them improve their space. There are lots of fun, funny or helpful items out there. Here’s a few that employees will appreciate.
Digital Picture Frame
Bring desk photos to life with a digital photo frame. Digital frames (also called media frames) are a picture frame that displays digital photos without the need of a computer or printer. Some play videos too. We found quality frames for as low as $40 at Target.
Desktop Fountain
The soothing sound of a bubbling fountain can make any stressful day feel a little bit calmer. We found a nice selection of desktop fountains on the Lamps Plus website.
Desktop Garden
A lot has been written about the benefits of plants both at home and in the office. Help create a healthy environment by gifting your employees a live plant. If you have a worker who enjoys cooking, consider a cute and functional herb garden. Crafty employees they might enjoy a DIY desktop terrarium kit.
If you want to make gift-giving easy, go with something that almost everyone can use, the standard gift card. Giftcards.com has compiled a list of the most popular gift cards for employees. From Target to GameStop, review the cards that your employees will use and appreciate: Top 10 Gift Cards for Employee Rewards
Need a laugh? Read about employee gift fails! These are some of the worst office gifts employees say they ever received.